…in protest outside parliament

HUNDREDS of sugar workers yesterday stood outside Parliament Buildings to protest the use of the scissors to reduce the $6B allocation to the sugar industry.

And Alliance for Change (AFC) member, Moses Nagamootoo, was booed and chased away vehemently by the sugar workers when he walked over to speak to them.
Protestors shouted, ‘Shame Moses’, ‘Moses must go’, and booed the politician, formerly associated with the ruling party, for what they called a “betrayal” of them and their interest.
Nagamootoo, speaking to the media after being moved from the protest area, noted that the AFC has never opposed the allocation to the sector or ignored the interest of the sugar workers, but has been calling for better accountability of the monies injected into the sector.
“The PPP/C (People’s Progressive Party/ Civic) has betrayed the workers,” he said.
Nagamootoo skirted around a definitive answer when he was asked to say whether or not the $6B allocation, which he called a handout, would be cut from the estimates.
He said the allocation will have to be reviewed by the Parliamentary Committee of Supply, which is currently reviewing in detail the allocations in the 2014 Budget.
However, the AFC member stressed that the party is “unlikely to vote against” the $6B allocation, once the answers to relevant questions asked are provided.

ETHNIC MOBILISATION
Nagamootoo bemoaned what he said was a “paid protest” reflective of “ethnic mobilisation” by the ruling party – a comment for which he was roasted by Agriculture Minister, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy.
The Minister made it clear that the protestors have a right to fight for their rights if they feel that they are under threat, a reasonable position, given the pronouncements on the industry by both the AFC and A Partnership for National Unity.
He said, “It is absolutely reprehensible that Mr. Nagamootoo would make such a statement. Let him go to Albion, to Skeldon and to the other sugar estates, to say that their protest was nothing more than ethnic mobilisation.
“Mr. Nagamootoo should be ashamed of himself for saying such a thing, when he and his party have to go to the very people to ask for their support.”
Ramsammy added that sugar, for decades, has been a significant contributor to the Guyanese economy in its good years, and through the sugar levy, funds were used to support other sectors, including bauxite, and even assist in funding to pay public servants.
“Sugar deserves our support,” he said passionately.
The Agriculture Minister acknowledged the many challenges facing the industry, but maintained his optimism that a turnaround is in sight, particularly considering the advances being made in this regard and the fact that the target of 70,000 tonnes for the first crop is almost reached.

BUDGET CUTTERS MUST CUT CANE
Meanwhile, the protestors marched along High Street, chanting ‘Sugar yes, tilapia no’, in reference to the combined-Opposition’s call to close sugar and replace it with ethanol and aquaculture.
Sugar workers called for Members of Parliament brandishing scissors to take their “scissors or cutlasses” to come to the cane fields and “cut cane”, so they will get a first-hand experience of the life of sugar workers who toil hard and long to put food on the table for their families.
General Secretary of the ruling party, Clement Rohee, was standing with the sugar workers and assured them that they have a right to protest for their rights, and supported their right to take a stand.
Education Minister Priya Manickchand was also standing with the workers and told several of them whom she had met at a prior meeting that she delivered their message to Shadow Finance Minister, Carl Greenidge, for him to come and face the sugar workers, whose livelihoods are on the breadline.
She, like Rohee, supported the workers’ right to demand that sugar not be destroyed, to defend their ability to provide for their families, and to defend their ability and dignity in being able to work and have an assured livelihood.
Other placards made several other appeals along similar lines: ‘Opposition don’t spite the sugar workers’, ‘Sugar worker want builders not MPs who threaten to cut’, ‘APNU and AFC don’t close sugar’ and ‘Enough is enough with APNU/ AFC bullyism’.

(By Vanessa Narine)